Rebounding Sparks Cavs' Offense

RICHMOND — Strip away the Olympian 43-point effort of Bimbo Coles, the breakneck pace and the 219 total points from the Virginia-Virginia Tech shootathon and you are left with one thing: rebounding.

Virginia's 113-106 overtime victory at the Richmond Coliseum came down to the Cavaliers' work on the boards.

Virginia crushed the Hokies on the boards 64-39. The Cavaliers had more offensive rebounds (28) than Tech had defensive rebounds (25).

"I thought the key to the game," Virginia acting head coach Dave Odom said, "was the fact that we cut down on their ability to get second and third shots.

"We thought if we broke their pressure we could get a good shot, and that we could get a potentially good offensive rebound."

Ten of Virginia's 39 field goals came on tip-ins, follow shots and offensive rebounds.

"Getting outrebounded was definitely the key to the game," Virginia Tech Coach Frankie Allen said. "They have a lot of depth and some guys that can really bang the boards and we aren't as fortunate."

The Cavaliers do indeed have more depth up front. But Matt Blundin, Brent Dabbs, Kenny Turner and Jeff Daniel hardly strike fear into opposing front lines.

But Wednesday, Blundin, the 6-foot-7 sophomore, came up with career bests in both rebounds (15) and points (13). Dabbs added nine rebounds, Turner had eight and Daniel six. Toss in six more rebounds from freshman Bryant Stith, the Cavs' best offensive rebounder, and seven rebounds from point guard John Crotty, and the disparity becomes apparent.

Rebounding, Virginia assistant coach Tom Perrin said, was critical.

"We knew they were going to take a lot of shots, 3-point shots and long shots - the type of shots that are difficult to get rebounds on, even when you have good position, because the ball's flying over your head," Perrin said. "We told our guards - Crotty, (Richard) Morgan and (Anthony) Oliver - that they were going to have to be aware of those shots and chase those balls down and they did an excellent job."

The rebounding edge was as unexpected as it was striking. Tech had lost six of its previous seven games. But the Hokies hadn't been outrebounded during that span, either. Included in that stretch were games in which they outrebounded Louisville and Missouri, both of which are ranked in the top five in the nation.

"Rebounding has always been an important part of our games," said Tech's Quinton Nottingham, who has been forced to play forward at an undersized 6-1. "But we just got annihilated on the offensive boards. In the first half, they kept getting stickbacks and second chances on us."

"We knew they were a decent rebounding team and Stith is a good offensive rebounder," Nottingham said. "He's been really the main one on the offensive boards all year."

The Hokies' rebounding effort was hurt by foul trouble to Eric Sanders. The 6-8 junior, one of Tech's few legitimate big men, picked up his third foul with 8:35 to play in the first half and sat out the rest of the half. He played a total of only 18 minutes and managed just four rebounds.

"We've been a pretty good offensive rebounding team all year," Perrin said. "For us, it's been a question of converting. We hadn't been converting those chances."